


The Phone Call

by maramarlowe



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Army, Based on a Tumblr Post, Cell Phones, Confusion, For a Friend, Funny, Love Bites, M/M, One Shot, Poor Nico, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 14:45:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18412787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maramarlowe/pseuds/maramarlowe
Summary: Nico recieves what could easily be a grave phone call, but when he answers, he's only met with confusion and a threat from the army that he really hopes is a joke.





	The Phone Call

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bella/gifts).



When Will had asked Nico's permission nearly a year back if he could join the army so that he could both fight and heal others on a daily basis, Nico found that he couldn't even hesitate on his answer. He immediately told his boyfriend to do it, because it was his dream to help others and because Nico trusted that he would return-his lover was a damn good fighter. Adjusting to life without Will constantly by his side had been much more difficult than he ever could predict. His days grew lonelier and his nights cold and endless without familiar arms wrapped around him. But he tried to find things to keep him busy, helping around the other cabins at the camp and automatically answering to Percy's every beck and call, always looking for some new battle to involve himself in. His days became steadier, filled instead with hunting monsters and training nearly intolerable newbies. The nights though, he still struggled with. There was no time like midnight, in the pitch black, that pained him so much to remember that he was missing his ray of light.

°°°  
A few months later…

Nico was, cleaning up the mess Will and he had made in his cabin over their last few weeks together. Between each few months they got a couple of weeks together that they always cherished. It wasn't worth their time to worry about the dishes or clean up when too many clothing piles began forming on the floor. Instead, they focused on sharing their time together, doing the things they loved before Will had to depart again.

Nico had the deep gray sink filled to the brim with soapy water, dishes tucked into the water carefully enough not to shatter any of the delicate porcelain. He was pulling each one out, scrubbing at it with a dark blue sponge, and then setting it on the other side of the sink, which was void of water, but now had a stack of dishing growing there. After he had scrubbed enough to fill his drying rack, Nico would rinse the soap off with cold water before sliding the dishes into their designated places. Then he'd pull the hand towel from it's rung at the stove, and use it to dry the dishes. It was a process he absolutely despised, but it needed to be done.

By the time he had cleared the black plastic drying rack of dishes and sunk his hands into the soapy water to start on the next batch, his voice began to ring in his back pocket. The ringtone was the one he had set only for the number Will called from.

He yanked his hands from the water, dropping the dish that had been in his grasp with a careless shatter and scrambled to get the hand towel back from it's spot. Nico scrubbed at his hands vigorously, always finding it harder to dry them after spending an afternoon washing dishes than after simply washing his hands. 

There was not a single explanation presenting itself in his mind as to why his boyfriend would be calling. He had just left, the next phone call Nico would receive from him would be at least two weeks away, when they were permitted to video call. With utter horror, he realized the call could easily be one to inform him that his boyfriend had been a victim of war.

He pulled the phone out of his back pocket, swiping to accept the call before he missed it. Nico cradled his phone to his ear, listening to the breathing on the other side before shakily answering, "Hello?"

A deep voice came through the speaker, and it was clearly not his boyfriend's voice. The pit at the bottom of Nico's stomach grew deeper. 

"This is Nico di Angelo, correct?" The man asked.

Nico bit his lip before answering. "Yes. Sir, what is going on?"

The man cleared his throat. "Well, I'm calling today about the incident of you having damaged government property."

His head spun. "W-what? I didn't damage any property. I've been inside my home for the past couple of weeks. So whatever is going on, you've got the wrong guy."

"I assure you that I do not have the wrong guy. We have the evidence right here at our base with us."

Nico had to set a hand on the counter to steady himself. He was so confused and still getting over the nerves about what he had assumed the phone call to be. Not that this situation was turning out much better. "I'm sorry, but I still have no idea what you're talking about."

He could hear the man huff on the phone and could have sworn he heard someone in the background chuckle. "Well then I suppose I must state it plainly for you, Mr. di Angelos."

He held the phone closer to his ear, just waiting for his world to come crashing down around him.

"When you're partner, Will Solace returned for duty, we discovered that he had been marked up by who he claims to be you."

Nico almost wanted to laugh but was too stricken by the ridiculousness of the call to do so. They were calling him because he had given his boyfriend a few hickeys? His boyfriend?

"This is a joke, isn't it?" Nico half asked and half begged. It had better have been a joke for how much of a scare it had put him into.

"Not in the slightest, Mr. di Angelo. If it comes to our attention that you ever destruct our property again, we will be forced to take action against you. Now, half a good day." The man hung up immediately, leaving no room for Nico to argue against him. Nico knew he couldn't call back either; the number they called from was one he could only receive, if he dialled it himself, he'd be stuck with only robotic monotone and hours of waiting.

So he stood in the kitchen, for what could have been hours, with his phone still clutched in his hand as he tried to figure out what the actual fuck that phone call was.

**Author's Note:**

> I've noticed a few people popping on to check out my stories. Do you have any prompts for me (I'm open to pretty much all fandoms and most prompts)? Send them my way and I'll try to add them onto my list to complete :)


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